Ding Hui put away his smart terminal and sighed, "With such a keen interest in making things, you might as well have chosen my teacher."
Li Ming shrugged his shoulders and then asked, "Do you have any channels that can lower the price of alloys a bit?"
"There are ways, but the channel that your little brother found is already quite cheap. Flame Blue Alloy is on the government’s controlled list, and they investigate before selling to anyone." Ding Hui shook his head, "The one I could find for you, even if it’s a bit cheaper, it wouldn’t make much difference."
"That’s true." Li Ming nodded, then suddenly asked again, "By the way, I heard that Professor Xia has collected quite a few Mother Ores."
"Yes." Ding Hui nodded, it wasn’t a secret: "The teacher likes collecting these things. He often says that ore is the flesh and blood of the universe."
After finishing, he seemed to glean something from the discussion and, looking at a thoughtful Li Ming, asked, "Why, are you also interested in Mother Ore?"
"A little." Li Ming said with a reserved smile.
"Ha..." Ding Hui laughed, "I advise you to drop that idea early, those are the teacher’s treasures, and he won’t even let us touch them."
"That... how many pieces of Mother Ore does Professor Xia have?" Li Ming asked hesitantly.
"I don’t know, maybe twenty or thirty pieces?" Ding Hui was also uncertain.
"That many?" Li Ming was surprised.
"That’s a lot?" Ding Hui was even more surprised, "Who is the teacher? A renowned Mechanical Master capable of crafting C-level weapons, a rare talent in our civilization."
"Over the years, many C-level life forms have had the teacher craft weapons for them. That he’s managed to accumulate twenty or thirty pieces is quite a lot, isn’t it?"
"That’s true." Li Ming thought to himself. C-level weapons, used by C-level life forms, followed a set of evaluation standards, which should be roughly the same as the ratings on the control panel.
If it’s about crafting, he wouldn’t be capable of doing it, but when it comes to upgrading, he could come up with quite a few options.
Accessing weapon crafting, this channel, was only possible through introductions; without a reputation or word-of-mouth, who would come to you?
"Brother Ding, don’t come over tomorrow, I’ll bring it to you instead." Li Ming took the initiative to offer.
"Bring it over to me?" Ding Hui looked Li Ming up and down, "You sly dog, harboring ulterior motives, huh?"
"Think what you will." Li Ming responded placidly.
Ding Hui wasn’t bothered by this since it wasn’t his thing anyway.
Even if Professor Xia died, it wouldn’t be his turn to inherit.
As he stepped out of the workshop, Ding Hui suddenly paused, "How did we get onto this topic? What was I asking at the beginning?"
After pondering for a while, he shook his head and left.
The next day, after greeting Luo Chuan, he was somewhat uneasy and, with a furrowed brow, personally escorted Li Ming to Professor Xia’s laboratory.
He stressed repeatedly that on the way back, Li Ming must wait for him to pick him up, speaking with utmost seriousness.
It appeared as if something had happened, but Li Ming didn’t have time to ask for details. When Ding Hui showed up to collect him, his demeanor, too, was hurried and solemn. Upon seeing that Li Ming was unharmed, he breathed a sigh of relief and, frowning, said:
"You really showed up, I sent you a message this morning telling you not to come, didn’t you see it?"
"What happened? Has there been an incident?" Li Ming asked while walking, and he saw thick alloy pillars rising around the perimeter of the large mechanical hall, their ends splitting open, with bright crystals inside them sparkling, shining with unknown purpose.
"Luo Chuan didn’t tell you?" Ding Hui was surprised, but without waiting for Li Ming’s response, he simply said, "A few days ago, that guy named Bian Heng was assassinated at school, do you know that?"
"I know." Li Ming nodded. He had been engrossed in his genetic development progress, which had reached 12% lately, and hadn’t paid much attention to external affairs.
He had thought that the matter was already an unsolved case.
"Unsolved case?" Ding Hui showed even more surprise, laughing coldly, "Someone murdered a person in school, that has deeply angered the dean. They’ve been investigating for five days and nights."
Li Ming truly was astonished; so they had been investigating this incident all along, then why had no one sought him out?
"They’ve finally found a clue." Ding Hui continued, looking around warily before whispering, "Do you know about ’Torch’?"
"Torch?" Li Ming hesitated, "The ’Torch’ I’m aware of is probably not the same one you’re referring to."
Ding Hui didn’t keep him in suspense, "Torch is a rebellion organization active in the Silver Star Cluster."
"Rebellion organization?" Li Ming exclaimed, "Rebelling against whom?"
"Who else." Ding Hui curled his lip, "Naturally, the Yitelan Civilization."
"This group is largely composed of remnants from civilizations that have been persecuted and wiped out by the Yitelan Civilization, active for many years."
Ding Hui gave a brief introduction; the Yitelan were not the good guys, or to put it in terms of civilization levels, there was no good or bad, only stances.
They were not philanthropists. The last recorded extinction of civilization at their hands took place over a hundred years ago, which wasn’t too far in the past.
"...That civilization was courting death, inexplicably making contact with Dimensional Creatures and conducting some sort of sacrifice, killing people from several planets." Ding Hui lamented.
"Dimensional Creatures?" Li Ming learned yet another unfamiliar term.
"They are secondary Dimensional Creatures, often pure energy forms, some of which have developed intelligence. Occasionally, when there is a spatial distortion, they can make contact with the primary universe. On some primitive planets, they are even worshiped as gods."
Ding Hui explained briefly; he didn’t know much about Dimensional Creatures himself, having only heard of them occasionally.
"We’ve gone off-topic; let’s get back to Torch. This organization is extremely extremist. They’ve started several wars in the Silver Star Cluster, and on a few occasions, they even affected several civilizations," Ding Hui said, "saying they’re universally condemned wouldn’t be an exaggeration."
"Is Bian Heng’s death related to them?" Li Ming tentatively inquired.
"Correct." Ding Hui nodded gravely, "The dean has screened out six students from the new intake with questionable backgrounds. They might be ’embers’ of Torch, and they’ve already started screening the higher grades."